This invention relates to methods and apparatus for making gloves. More particularly, it relates to a method of and apparatus for turning stitched leather gloves from their inside out condition in which they are stitched, to their finished condition, and for flattening the stitched seams of the gloves which are consequently disposed inside the fingers of the finished glove.
Gloves of leather and similar pre-formed materials are made by stitching together pre-cut pieces of the material. Since it is desirable that in the finished glove the stitched seams should be out of the way and not visible, for functional and/or aesthetic reasons, a leather glove is stitched together inside out, with the seams projecting outwardly, and then reversed so that the seams will be disposed inside the finished glove. In order that the glove may be worn comfortably, the seams inside the fingers of the gloves should not project inwardly to any great extent. It is therefore necessary to flatten the stitched seams. This is normally done after the glove is turned from its inside out condition, and is referred to in the art as blocking the glove.
Thus after a leather glove has been stitched together, there are the turning and blocking operations to be performed, before the glove is finished. Due to the relatively complex structure of a glove, with its finger, hand and cuff parts of different shapes, the turning and blocking operations do not readily lend themselves to performance by mechanical means in a simple, rapid and effective manner.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
It has previously been proposed to turn a stitched leather glove from inside out condition to right side out condition by mounting the inside out glove on an apparatus comprising tubular finger members which extend inside the glove fingers. Then rods or plungers are pushed down inside the tubes to reverse the fingers of the glove so that the fingers of the glove lie between the inside of the tubular finger members and the outside of the plungers, in their right side out condition. The cuff portion of the glove is gripped by hand or clamping means, and drawn upwardly over the tubular finger members so as to complete the turning of the glove. Examples of this type of glove turning apparatus are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,547, Horton, U.S. Pat. No. 2,540,503, Becker, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,286,057 and 2,286,058, Brownstein, U.S. Pat. No. 2,434,816, Suftko, U.S. Pat. No. 2,510,341, Keller and U.S. Pat. No. 978,434, Crosby.
In such glove turning processes and apparatus, however, considerable amounts of force have to be exerted to turn the fingers of the glove. This entails a substantial risk that the glove will be torn or otherwise damaged during the turning operation. Further, blocking of the glove is effected as a separate operation, either using separate apparatus, or using apparatus constituting a separate and distinct stage of a combined turning and blocking apparatus. Blocking of a leather glove is accomplished by applying heat to the seam in a forcibly flattened condition, substantially equivalent to ironing of textiles. Blocking is a time consuming process. In such prior art processes, the glove has to be held in the seam flattened condition at a temperature of about 300.degree. F for a period of about 2 minutes, to accomplish the necessary blocking. This is a limitation in the production capacity of conventional leather glove making processes.